Cover of The Burning Secret by Stefan Zweig Ebook The Burning Secret
Ebook · Sovereign

The Burning Secret

Author
Stefan Zweig
Language
English
Length
80 pages
ISBN
9781787360723
Published
10 September 2019
Imprint
Sovereign
  • Zweig
  • romance
  • fantasy
  • adventure
  • drama
  • austrian literature

Description

While being treated for asthma at a country spa, an American diplomat's lonely 12-year-old son is befriended and infatuated by a suave, mysterious baron. During a story of his war experiences, the baron reveals the scar of a wound from an American soldier and thrusts a pin through it, saying "see—no feeling." Little does the boy realize that it is his turn to be wounded. But soon his adored friend heartlessly brushes him aside and turns his seductive attentions to his mother. The boy's jealousy and feelings of betrayal become uncontrollable.

Author

Stefan Zweig (1881–1942) was born in Vienna, studied at the university there, and became the continent's most translated man of letters — novellas, biographies, a public European. The Burning Secret is a child's half-knowledge beside an adult plot; Romain Rolland is homage to a fellow internationalist. He left Austria as the doors closed, wrote in exile, and died in Brazil. The prose is urbane, psychological, and already homesick.